Proper "space-sphere"?

[sharktopus]

Hello!

There are tons of useful UDK tutorials available, but somehow I just couldn't find one to address this specific problem, so I decided to ask you guys, so my apologies in advance if my question has been already answered in a different topic, I have searched this forum and googled quite a bit before deciding to post.

I am trying to create this galaxy setting for a cinematic and I'm having tons of trouble trying to build a sphere skydome

I have tried doing this in 2 different ways:

1. I used Spacescape to generate a space sphere but didn't know how to transform the 6 resulting pictures (front, left, right, back and bottom) into a texture i can then use on a sphere mesh.

I tried just adding the materials to a cube but the end result was dissappointing ( the edges of the cube were clearly visible - or was I doing it wrong?)

2. I followed this tutorial - Creating a Skydome. My plan was to create a big texture that i could split and create 2 skydomes, a top and a bottom one, that i would join to make a sphere.
The problem with this approach was that when I imported the textured mesh into UDK, the texture would dissappear for some reason (exported from 3DS Max as .ASE, with Mesh Normals and Mapping Coordinates checked).

I am just starting to learn to use UDK, just finished the extremely useful 3DBuzz tutorials.

Can someone please help me by either pointing out my mistakes and what I should have done or just post some tutorials i should watch that teach me how to properly set up a space scene? Sorry for the long read and thank you in advance!

[Count_de_Money]

http://lightfeather.de/lf/documentat...l/Skydome.html

You can the one with ATI tool and HDRshop too, but I when I applied the final texture to the sphere in UDK I wasn't too satisfied with the result. I'm still using a skybox, but I'm planing to try that Blender tutorial these days too.

http://www.outpt.co.uk/how-to-conver...-to-a-skydome/

[sharktopus]

thank you! i'll give these a go.

[Count_de_Money]

Ah I missed one thing so here's the update.
You can use that second one after all. When I applied the material to skydome mesh I got some weird stretched material, but when I applied it to a regular sphere (like fog mesh) it's fine. Could be the UVs that skydome mesh uses or I missed something, so I'll check it out later.
So use the second link, you'll just need to do one face at the time in that ATI tool to align it properly (you'll need to rotate some sides diagonally then vertically etc.).

[shot]http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/4760/skysphere.jpg[/shot]

[sharktopus]

thank you again so much, you've been really helpful!

[sharktopus]

I'm sorry, I still have some questions Money:

1. isn't the second tutorial used for creating a dome, not a sphere?

2. I'm not sure what to do at a certain point in the second tutorial:
At Step Two: Create a Skybox Cross (ATI CubeMapGen) - it basically asks me to import the 6 faces of my skybox - is there any way i can split a 4096x2048 (or any res picture actually, as i make them from scratch) space background that I created in Photoshop into these 6 faces?

3. how did you flip the static mesh sphere so you can add material to the inside of it? I tried using the sphere fog mesh thingie in UDK by flipping it with the geometry tool, and it didn't work.

sorry for being annoying

[Count_de_Money]

It works on a sphere too (they just cut their bottom part in the end to get a dome), just don't use the assets provided with UDK because you'll get distorted texture. I'm using this one now (just made a new one), and I see no issues with it.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HFY63WLY

2. I guess you could but I didn't bother with it because you get from Spacescape all 6 sides as an individual texture (I used 2k for export). So the process is a bit annoying in the start, but basically here is how it goes.
First place Top on Z+ axis and Front on X+ axis, then you'll need to rotate then both until you see the texture is aligned. Once you've done that you just add 1 more texture then align, then next one etc. After first two I added Back on X-, Bottom on Z-, and I think Left is Y- and Right Y+. Of course all of this is in case you're using a nebula like I am so you need to align the textures, in case of stars skymap I don't think it's really needed. This step is the one with most work and it will take some 10 mins first time you do it, but once you've done it it's easy actually.

3. I didn't flip it, but it was minimized so you couldn't see it from the pic. Also the fog volume sphere gets deformation on poles, that's why I made my own sphere so I recommend you use that one (that MU link).

One more thing is the texture import size that gets limited to 1024, and to 2048 in case you choose Skybox. I edited next line in UDKEngine.ini to override to so I can use 4k size (in this case 4096x2048) which gives much cleared image:

TEXTUREGROUP_World=(MinLODSize=256,MaxLODSize=4096 ,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipG enSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)

So just set MaxLODSize from 1024 to 4096.

[Count_de_Money]

I did it one more time, so here is the order how you need to rotate your textures when you import them in the CubeMapGen:

Z+ load Top texture -> rotate diagonally
X+ Front -> rotate diagonally
X- Back -> rotate diagonally, then horizontally and vertically
Z- Bottom -> rotate diagonally
Y- Right -> vertically
Y+ Left -> horizontally

[MasonThird]

Are you sure your sphere works? I tested here following the tuts and your information and ended up with a skydome, not a sphere.